ABOUT GARY FOR SVUSD BOARD
A proven leader experienced in education law who has advocated for children's rights for decades. A tireless volunteer in our schools coaching mock trial, volleyball and soccer.
LIST OF PRIORITIES
Finding Funding - It is no secret that our teachers are grossly underpaid. Of the nearly 1000 school districts in the state, SVUSD teachers are consistently in the bottom 10 districts in pay yet we live in one of the most expensive communities in the state. Finding more funds to pay our teachers is a daunting challenge with many obstacles, but it is a challenge we must embrace if we are to recruit and retain quality teachers for our children.
Supporting Teacher Development
Promoting Student Well-being. Every student should feel safe and welcome at our schools. Bullying, particularly on social media and through the use of cell phones must be stopped and those who bully must be held strictly accountable. More and more research shows that the use of cell phones in school is detrimental to student learning and makes our teachers' jobs much more difficult.
Enhancing Curriculum
Ensuring Fiscal Responsibility
Q & A
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How do you plan to increase pay so we can recruit and retain high quality teachers?
This is a very challenging task. School funding criteria changed last year with the passage of the Local Control and Accountability Plan. Under the law, our district's ability to increase funding from the state is severely limited. We are only eligible for General Assistance. Meanwhile, most federal dollars are restricted. In the short term, if we are going to significantly increase teacher compensation, it will likely have to come from within our community in the form of a bond measure. In the long term, appeals to legislators or challenging the formula for funding might be possible.
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Can't we cut something in the budget and give it to teachers?
Well...maybe, but it's not so easy. Teacher and staff compensation presently accounts for the vast majority of the budget. As a result, cutting other areas of the budget will have only a minor impact on teacher salaries. Also, many budget items are either inelastic (not easily subject to decreases such as the need for electricity) or required by law, such as special education services. But while we work on major increases, we can try to get incremental increases by seeking out greater efficiencies. For example, adding solar panels to the schools will greatly decrease our payments to PG&E while still supplying the electricity we need. If we pass Prop. O and build an all weather field at the high school, our water bill (which is very large) will decrease. All these efficiencies add up. The savings can, theoretically, be passed on to teachers.
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What training can we get to address learning and developmental delays due to Covid?
There is controversy in the research on whether COVID led to significant developmental delays in young children. Regardless of what is true, high-quality preschool experiences, such as Head Start, make a measurable difference. As for learning delays, teachers will tell you, almost without exception, that COVID led to learning delays. A board will of course support teacher training and services to address these delays, but there is the never ending issue of dollars to pay for increased services and training. A low-cost effective strategy, however, is training parents to be more involved with their children's education. Studies consistently show that children whose parents are highly involved with their children's education do much better in school. On the other hand, experience has shown that it can be challenging to engage parents more than they are already engaged. Still, while teachers can try to close the learning gap, that gap will close much quicker and more effectively if parents know how to better help their children.